While there can be no joy derived from the closing of Selkirk, there could be a silver lining. In the long run, it might help Caithness (if it survives its receivership) as there will be a little less competition for quality paperweights. Also, it may up the price of Selkirk weights in the secondary marketplace, such as eBay.

But the message is clear - global competition from poor-quality, cheaply made and cheaply priced knock-off imports is continuing to damage the United Kingdom glass industry.

You can only blame Joe public who prefer to buy cheap and nasty. But lets face it, how many collectors are buying at retail? How many wait for the second market appearance?

A good parallel is toys shops, full of cheap and nasty break within a week garbage, or very high priced but still often cheap and nasty. There are very few strongly made toys anymore even Fisher-Price stuff is more lightly made than it was 20 years ago. It was common for toys to pass through several hands as each owner grew out of it. Now few toys survive long enough to pass on once. It is the high cost of labour that obliges the shift of manufacture abroad combined with discount stores and the like. But if we insist on locally made goods we risk being accused of protectionism.

Imagine you go into a store to by a gift for a distant relatives birthday, you end up with a choice between a 15 pound Caithness paperweight or a 5 pound Chinese one. Both are pretty and the Chinese one has more exciting and vibrant colours (you know nothing about glass) ... which one do you choose?

It took me a few minutes before I realized the 15 pound paperweight meant COST not actual heft (weight). I was thinking I'd buy the Caithness anyway, but was wondering why you were comparing heaviness. D'oh. :lol:

Frank, you're so right, particularly about Fisher Price, for example! My grandchildren are now happily playing with the Fisher Price toys purchased for their father back in the early '70's - and that after his 3 younger brothers had played with them in turn (including a severely ADHD one, who managed to break most things! :roll: )

And as far as paperweights go (to get back on topic :wink: ) I think some of Caithness problems might have been down to trying to compete with the cheap Chinese abstracts, with their 'Pebble' range, for example. The Chinese (or Taiwanese) 'Royal Crest' weights for example are colourful, fun and quite cleverly made. And cheap. Very cheap! Caithness would do better to concentrate their production and marketing on high-class, top of the range products, and leave the cheap and cheerful to those who - like it or not - now do it best. They need to recognise that theirs should be different market.

The main problem with that Leni is that you fall into a catch 22 situation where the production costs for the top end items is so high because of the level of craftsmanship involved that very often you are approaching the cost of a fine antique item, and from that perspective the choice should be a no brainer. Moorcroft have suffered from exactly this problem dumbing down their overall production whilst the higher end pieces cost more than a 100 year old piece by William Moorcroft which retains a secondary market value whilst the top end modern pieces struggle badly in the secondary market.Totally wrong to blame it on cheap imports though it is down to combined factors of rising production costs for quality and the general fall in prices of the vintage items.Paul